The Ilumnos Series

Chapter 8- Temple and Crypt

13

JUN/10

Having retrieved the inner-piece of the third “fire sphere”, the instrument which gives power to one of the arms which loads color crystals into the Ilumnos Machine, the party retuns to the machine in hopes of loading all three color crystals, Blue, Red, and Yellow, into the machine and traveling to what they hope will be the final world, where they hope they will find a way home.

Hopes are dashed however after the party engineer “Tank” gets the machine ready and it asks for a password! It seems they are trapped. Since the machine is not sending power to any crystals at the moment they are technically in the Grey World. They search all around the Ilumnos Building for a clue to the password but find nothing.

Just then they hear bells… church bells!

The road to the temple is long but very straight. Leaving the center of the city they walk past the many streets which circle the Ilumnos Building. Finally, on the edge of the outer ring stands the large stone building which is the temple.

THETEMPLE

Surprisingly, (or not), the temple door is now open. Cautiously, the party makes their way in. A giant sphere of light radiating all colors and hues hovers more than ten feet off the ground at the far end. Along the walls as the enter are mirrors that reflect light from the pulsating sphere. As a single beam hits each mirror the mirror takes on the color of the beam which it was hit with. The mirror’s reflect back scenes, some of passion, others of lonliness or depression, some of jealousy, or happiness, others of pure ego. Each color reflects back a different emotional theme, and as the party watches the scenes, which they have no idea if they are visions of something real that has happened, is happening, or will happen, or could possibly happen, or if it is something fictional; the scenes become more personal, reflecting back moments from their own lives- moments of their lives which have particuarly strong emotional ties.

Seemingly appearing out of the light itself is a large upright grasshopper (humanoid maybe?). It towers almost a foot over the tallest in the party, “Tank”, though this isn’t as noticible since it is kneeling down deep in prayer. Light seems to pass through it, suggesting it may not be fully reside in the physical realm. Long flowing white robes spill over its body and drape onto the floor. It doesn’t seem to notice them at first.

They get closer to it, but not too close. “Baran”, the group leader, greets it.

Eyes open and it arises in acknowledgement of their presence. It gestures up toward the sphere of light above them and begins to speak

“Good and Evil. Law and Chaos. Life and Death. All civilizations everywhere recognize our duality. The duality of the universal everything. Many struggle with it, finding it hard to comprehend, many even pick a side.

Some of the most conscious creatures have discovered that light is both a beam and a particle. Yet none other has connected this to everything else. We are all light. Everything is light. This is where we get our duality.

Good, evil, law, choas, life, death; this is our existence. This is what we are. Chaos, evil, and death are no threat to law, good and choas, just as the left arm is no threat to the right.

He pauses for a moment. Looking into the distance, but really looking nowhere.

But there is something out there that does threaten our existence. It has been threatening our existance for thousands of years and continues to do so. My people, the Lumar, The Followers of Light, did not realize it until it was too late for us.

This threat is something we could not comprehend. It is not part of our duality, and it threatens to unravel our existence and our duality. We do not know much about it, since it undid us before we even had a chance to realize what it was. Because of this, I can only call it the Darkness. It has been creeping here and there into all the worlds, and it goes unseen, for it’s very nature makes it hard to see, which is why it is the Darkness.

Our deity has been trying to fight this darkness, but has weakened since our demise. His powers don’t reach very far. He needed help. the Black World is beyond him, which is why we need your help. He has brought you here now so that I may tell you this. Please go to the Black World and find the Darkness and put and end to it before it can undo anymore of our world.

I know not what it’ll look like, it has taken many forms. It will be something that is not of our nature, not of light. It will destroy and defy all dualities, and it will try to make all the world, and all worlds become like it.

I can’t leave this temple, for my god’s powers only allow me here, and not for much longer. I do not know the access code to let you to the Black World, but I do know that the answer lies in the crypt somewhere.

Please, retrieve it and help us.

After all this time wanding from world to world, facing their near demise time after time, wondering how and why they were abducted and by whom. The party doesn’t greet the news like archtypical heroes given and holy mission. They are homesick, and tired of puzzles and fighting for their lives. It is the party leader “Baran” who embodies this dissatisfaction most, and is the most vocal about it.

“Baran” angrily denounces the Lumar priest before them and his god. He wants to know what gives them the right to snatch people up and put them through everything they’ve been through and just shove them into a quest that they didnt ask for. They could have asked for help, and they might have received it.

The priest doesn’t have much to say in return. He can only say that he is sorry, but it was the only way they could. They had locked their world for 1247 years as a quarantine precaution, since 1247 is a holy number to them. At that time if there was no one left than four magical portals would appears in four worlds. Four heros drawn to help save them. They couldn’t have asked. No one was left, and their god’s power has become significantly limited. He also stresses that the Darkness isn’t just a problem for the Lumar, especially now that they are gone, but it is a threat to all worlds, even the ones they hail from.

The group is not happy with what they have been told, and less ssatisfied with their answers, but they are motivated by the want and need to return home, to regain their lives. So they leave the temple and make their way to the crypt, which is also open.

THECRYPT

Descending into the underground tunnels of the crypt the party immediately gets an ominous feeling. A single main tunnel branches off into eight different tunnels, each of which house countless tomb rooms. Having no clues to lead them to any particular tunnel the party goes down the first one they come across. Heavy stone doors line the way, all of them at least slightly ajar. On each door there are a few symbols. What could they mean? Numerous sarcophagi fill each room. The walls have writing, probbaly some type of prayer for the dead. Most disturbing however, is that each sarcophagus has been opened and the remains of the dead have been defiled, sometimes scattered around the room. The party check the remains, mostly just exo-skeleton. It appears that something has been trying to feed of the dead bodies. Nothing remains inside the exo-skeleton and there are numerous teeth marks on the remains.

The situation is the same in everyroom they come across. Open doors, open sarcophagi, empty remains. Soemthing else- they notice that the exo-skeletons in this tunnel all have similar features: they are all of the grasshopper type, with short wings, long antenna, and a bulbous head. The priest they meet in the temple had different features, and the image displayed in the machine in the library looked like neither. Are the tunnels arranged by family lines? Could the symbols on each door be the family name?

The check out the second tunnel. The situation is similar, the remains have been tampered with by someone or something, but this time the features appear different: they are of the grasshopper type, with short wings, short antenna, and a narrow head.

The third tunnel houses those Lumar of the grasshopper type with long wings, short antenna, and a narrow head.

They are checking the third tunnel to make sure it is clear when movement from the shadows catches a few eyes and turns a few heads. Then from behind them a ghostly creature steps out of the space between the darkness and attacks!

This thing appears to once have been a Lumar but its features have twisted. It steps from place to place by disappearing and reappearing from darkness to shadow. This ghostly thing seems to be the unholy opposite of all the Lumar stand for.

Attacking them by surprise, its very touch drains hit points, and seems to make it stronger! They react, but not quick enough, it blinks from shadow to shadow, evading their blades even when they hit, just going right through it! Only magical blades and spells seem to be able to touch this foul thing. It hits them for every time they strike it, and since it seems to become stronger with every hit the battle continues to go back and forth for a while. At one point the spirit draws forth power from the darkness and shadows creep over all within a 2-’ radius. Those failing a Will save all lose hitpoints that seem to go to the spirit. They hit the thing with all they have, power attack and their strongest spells, and seem to make some ground, but it hits Availin and drains a level from him, getting still stronger! “Baran” finally gets close and hits him with a couple of scorching rays at point blank as “Tank” pierces through with his flaming burst dagger, Availin makes a solid hit with his magical halbred, and Pavlik strike it with his chaotic short sword, which doesnt seem to have as much effect as it did on the obviously lawful evil Fire Dwarves in the Red World.

The ghostly Lumar is finally freed from his eternal curse by their magical baldes, but the party did not make it through without loosing much on their end as well.

“Baran” has the idea of checking the tunnel which the spirit may have been buried if it had died and was given a proper burial. It was of the mantis type and had short wings, long antenna, six limbs, and large “hands” or pincers. They find others with siimilar features in the sixth tunnel. Near the end of the tunnel they find a tomb that hasn’t been desicrated. could this be the spirit’s family? The room hold no clues, but the family name on the door seems to have characters that could be put into the machine through its keyboard. Is the passcode the family name?

They depart back to the Ilumnos Machine to find out. First they stop at the temple to see about healing their wounds, the priest is gone, but there is a small fountain in the entrance which they drink from, hoping it might be blessed. Sure enough their wounds are healed and Availin’s level is restored!

In the Ilumnos Building they get ready to depart as “Tank” inputs the family name, and sure enough the machine powers up and a beam of white light passes through all three color crystals, blue, red, and yellow. they are off to the Black World.

I’m sorry Dorkariffic :( Its a huge amount of gaming (over 6 months) that I’m not only trying to type up but to remember as well as try to figure how to write concisely. I’ve got the first few days done and its already over 6 pages! They were there for 2 weeks, so its really time consuming and I’ve been pretty busy with work and all the grad school stuff and moving stuff.. sigh. But I promise I am trying to get it up.